A conventional cooking device for performing heat cooking with steam generated by a steam generation device is disclosed in JP 2008-164284 A (Patent Literature 1). This cooking device includes a magnetron and a heater as heating means so as to enable to fulfill microwave oven cooking and oven cooking. Further, a steam generation container is placed in a side portion of a heating chamber.
The steam generation container is composed of a container body formed of a recess portion having an opening and a container cover for closing the opening of the container body. The container cover is screwed to the container body, by which a steam generation chamber is defined. A U-shaped steam heater is cast inside the container body. Also a water supply port is provided in the container body. On the other hand, three cylindrical-shaped steam blowoff holes are formed in an upper portion of the container cover.
In an inner surface of the container body, a plurality of radiating fins are formed, including two radiating fins projecting downward from upside of the container body, three radiating fins positioned in lower portions of the individual steam blowoff holes and projecting horizontally, and four radiating fins positioned downward of the radiating fins located in the lower portions of the steam blowoff holes and projecting horizontally.
With this constitution, as a small quantity of water is supplied by a pump to the steam generation container that has been increased to a temperature of around 120° C., the water drops into the steam generation chamber, being instantly vaporized. This steam passes through the plurality of radiating fins, going up and reaching the steam blowoff holes and being released into the heating chamber. In this case, since the radiating fins have also increased to around 120° C. together with the steam generation container, steam brought into contact with the radiating fins is reheated.
Also, a container-cover-side edge of each radiating fin formed inside the steam generation chamber is in contact with the inner surface of the container cover. Therefore, the inside of the steam generation chamber is made labyrinthine by the plural radiating fins extending in plural directions in various configurations. As a result of this, even if water that has flowed into the steam generation chamber is boiled so as to rush up on an inner wall of the steam generation chamber, the boiling water is blocked by the labyrinthine radiating fins from reaching the steam blowoff holes. Furthermore, since the boiling water is heated and vaporized by contact with the radiating fins, the boiling water is prevented from jetting out from the steam blowoff holes.
However, the conventional cooking device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 has the following problems.
That is, the container body and the container cover are formed of metal die casting such as aluminum die casting, and a U-shaped steam heater is cast inside the container body. Still, in the inner surface of the container body, a plurality of radiating fins projecting downward from upper portion and a plurality of radiating fins projecting horizontally from side portion are formed. Forming the container body having such a complex configuration by metal die casting with casting of the U-shaped steam heater is quite difficult because of complexity of the metal mold, leading to cost increases, problematically.
Further, the steam generation container is so structured that the container cover is screwed to the container body having the complex configuration as described above. Therefore, scale is highly likely to accumulate in the steam generation container, and yet accumulated scale is quite hard to remove, problematically.
Moreover, the radiating fins are formed in the container body having the steam heater cast therein. Therefore, the radiating fins have increased in temperature together with the steam generation container to around 120° C., so that generated saturated steam is reheated due to contact with the radiating fins, resulting in superheated steam. Thus, in the case of steamed cooking for puddings, chawan-mushi (custard-like egg and vegetable dishes steamed in a cup), or the like, heating with superheated steam of over 100° C. causes the dishes to be dried, resulting in a poor finished state, problematically.